Date: August 28, 2007
Time: 13.00
Location: Cottiers, Glasgow
Background info: Roddy Hart started out his music career as a guitarist for a band called The Dendrons. When they broke up, Roddy put together a tape of his own songs which brought him to the attention of Independiente boss Andy McDonald, who called it “the best demo he’d heard since The La’s”. But when that deal fell through, Roddy decided to do things on his own and released a demo album called Home Tapes in 2004 followed by his first studio album in 2006, the superlative Bookmarks.
No doubt you’ll have been patiently waiting for our promised interview with RODDY HART. The Pop Cop finally caught up with the 28-year-old Glaswegian on a break from recording his new album. From our previous post you’ll have gathered we’ve long admired his music and live performances and so we jumped at the chance to quiz him over a Diet Coke or two about his career. It was an illuminating hour and a half of breathless chat and today we bring you the highlights.
THE POP COP: How did Home Tapes come about?
I was asked to do a weekly residency at The Universal in Sauchiehall Lane. That was actually the first time I’d ever sung live. During that time I wrote a few songs and recorded them. They were just supposed to be demos but my manager persuaded me to put it out so I would have something to sell at gigs. It was done in about four days and we sold all 2000 copies.
Recording and writing is something I’ve done since I was 16. It’s part of me. But feeling comfortable and actually getting any enjoyment from live performances has taken a while. It was to do with my voice. I had to teach myself to sing. I just kept telling myself that people like Bob Dylan are a vehicle through which their songs come through. That’s how I feel. I’m much more interested in songwriting.
I don’t know exactly where my love of lyrics come from, I just care about them. I care about how they’re constructed and I care passionately about how they look on the page. I hate repeating words other than in choruses. I love imagery and songs that conjure up a great story and invoke feelings that aren’t just ‘I love you, you love me, let’s go start a family’.
THE POP COP: Did you have any hesitation about re-recording some of the songs from Home Tapes for Bookmarks?
I was worried at first but now it feels like they fit on that album. That’s why I called it Bookmarks. It marked a time in my life. I’m happy that it’s my first proper studio album, the one that hopefully people will go back to rather than Home Tapes. Even the press have been on my side. The Sunday Mail, for example, had Bookmarks in their top ten albums of the year.
THE POP COP: Which of your songs means the most to you?
The one song that’s always got a bit of resonance whenever I play it is Journey’s End. I remember playing a gig in Malaig with The Dendrons. Afterwards me and Derek, the bass player, took a train back to Glasgow. We spent the whole time talking about our favourite bands, our favourite music, everything. I really got to know him that day.
The next time time I went on that train journey it was after his funeral three years later. He had been diagnosed with lymphoma [cancer] and died within three months. It was right at the time that the band was dropped and it put everything into perspective. He was a really good guy and a big influence on me. I started to write a few lines on the train and it became Journey’s End.
THE POP COP: Are you able to make a living from music?
My degree was in law so I sometimes teach tutorials at Glasgow Uni and I’m also working from home on a research project for the Scottish Executive. I’ve got this real desire to make the music work so I’m making ends meet. I’m speculating to accumulate. Home Tapes paid for Bookmarks and Bookmarks will pay for this next record.
THE POP COP: So how’s the new album going?
I’ve got 20 songs so that’s why it’s taking so long. I can’t get to sleep because of it. I’m constantly redrafting ideas in my head. It definitely sounds different from Bookmarks, which ended up sounding like an Americana/country record. There’s a lot more electric guitar and it’s more upbeat. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going down the Franz Ferdinand route, but when you do the singer-songwriter thing it gives you freedom to change your style.
It should be done by the end of the year and will be out in 2008. The question will be how I’ll get it mixed. I mixed Bookmarks myself and it nearly drove me crazy.
THE POP COP: How did you end up recording a song with Ryan Adams?
When he played the Carling Academy in February last year he borrowed my Telecaster guitar. I met him in the bar afterwards and he thanked me and said, ‘Let’s go somewhere and play some music’. So we went to Park Lane Studios.
He’s so driven. He said, ‘Right, I want to write a song about a girl called Jo’. Funnily enough, he was seeing Lindsay Lohan at the time. We were all steaming but two songs came out of that night. One of them, Thorns On Every Rose, ended up on the new Endrick Brothers album.
I woke up the next morning and finished the other song. I thought, ‘Great, I’ve written a song with Ryan Adams’. But then I came to the conclusion that it was a good night and I should leave it at that. The tape still exists but we’re all drunk - there’s no way Ryan Adams will even remember it! There are so many collaborations on Bookmarks that happened by chance. I don’t want people to think I'm trading on other people’s names.
THE POP COP: What motivates you?
I'm not materialistic. My big thing is if people can sing the songs back to you - that’s amazing. It's that validation of your own writing. It's not to have fame - in fact, fame scares me a bit. I want my songs to mean something to people. That's what drives me, that’s why I can’t give up.
It feels like I’m doing it the right way. I’ve always said to myself that I’ll stop if it things go backwards, but it's getting better. It’s just such a slow increase. The songs are definitely connecting with people and at the festivals we played over the summer you could feel it. People were cheering out that they knew us and that’s great after five years of hard work. That keeps me going and gives me hope.
My manager always tells me to keep the faith and hold your nerve and that’s exactly what you’ve got to do. If it does happen for me, no one can say I did it the easy way.
THE POP COP: Would you sign to a major label?
The next record needs to have a bit more money behind it so it would be so tempting. It would definitely feel like all my problems were solved. But then again I’ve been there before and I’ve seen how it can fall apart. I’ve seen people get caught up in that machine - they get chewed up and spat out. That’s why I wanted to record this next album myself.
The kind of music I do is never going to be the coolest thing but there is a huge market for it. The songs are good enough - it's all about exposure. There’s an element of luck. It’s hard to know what to do except make a good record and get it out there. It’s such a learning curve. Hopefully people can’t ignore me for too much longer!
Fair play to Paulo Nutini. He’s so young and it’s all happened so fast. That nearly happened to me. I remember the guy from Independiente telling me, ‘You’re going to be massive’. I felt really scared at the time. But if you look at KT Tunstall, it happened for her when she was 30 and I just thought, ‘Good on her’. I remember her saying she was really enjoying her success because she’d worked so long for it. I would feel exactly the same. It’s only now that I feel totally ready for it.
4 Roddy Hart - Journey's End
b September 22, Ramshorn Theatre, Glasgow (acoustic)
b October 4, Darvel Music Festival, Ayrshire
b November 4, Lemon Tree, Aberdeen
b November 5, Hootananny, Inverness
b November 6, The Lighthouse, Dunnet Head
b November 8, The Tollbooth, Stirling
b November 10, Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh
b November 11, Oran Mor, Glasgow
Stop, look and listen. Not just good road safety advice but also the key to gauging the effectiveness of a support act.
